27 February 2009

The NY Times reports that Mayor Bloomberg wants to clean up Times Square. No, he isn't pushing out undesirable businesses or fighting against litter there. Mayor Bloomberg wants to get rid of the traffic, at least on the Broadway side. The Times found a New Jerseyan wh didn't like the idea:

“I like the happy hubbub,” said Melissa Gasparis, of Upper Saddle River, N.J., who was strolling through Times Square on Thursday. She said she was afraid the mayor’s plan would make the place less vibrant, because the sidewalks would be less crowded and the streets more free-flowing.

Clearly chaos is a positive attribute in Times Square. But is it enough to preserve the traffic on just one side? If it lessens the "frenzy," is the added safety and move away from cars still worth it?

25 February 2009

The Bayonne Golf Club (New Jersey): A Case Study for Building a World-Class Golf Course on a Land Fill in New Jersey.

The talk focused on an interesting site on the Hudson that is built on fill dreged from the Hudson and on an old municipal landfill. The Bayonne Golf Club was developed, designed and constructed by Eric Bergstol. As often happens, the project has a lengthy history on paper, and this one also has a lengthy history in the reclamation of the site.

1996 - negotiations for ownership

2004 - shaping

2005 - seeding

2006 - open

2008 - clubhouse opens

This project had to address countless legal and policy issues, which required a large team ranging from attorneys to plants folks (like Stephen Kristoff) to wetlands experts (like Princeton Hydro) to landscape architects (like Margie Ruddick). Even when the site passed health standards, conditions (like Ph) were still insufficient for the growing conditions that Hurley sought. 3.5 million cubic yards of topsoil had to be brought in to cap the site. 80,000 yards of sand were brought in for fairways and tees. Kristoff brought in over 50,000 plants, many of which needed to be salt tolerant.

New Jersey Resources (NJR) today announced the formation of the Conserve to Preserve Foundation and presented its first grant of $300,000 to the state’s Green Job Training Partnership Program.

That could sure help some folks transition from old economy jobs into new economy opportunities. It is interesting to see that the Conserve to Preserve Foundation appears to be a charitable wing of one of the local gas companies.

24 February 2009

Historic preservation can be hard. When I taught in Barcelona, I was consistently impressed with how well the Spaniards had done in holding together 2000 year old Roman ruins and how great the 500 year old churches and plazas looked. (It is worth noting that the banks in Spain are obligated to engaged in community outreach, and their work on everything from Gaudi's buildings to art exhibits makes a huge difference)

There has also been a movement to preserve more modern buildings and plazas, but with less public recognition of their importance or the difficulties involved. As a great example, Cincinnati's Union Terminal has a video of damage to this beautiful, historic art deco building. You can clearly see that, although it isn't as old as the Segovia aqueduct or Mt. Vernon, it is going to be an enormous task to save one America's top 50 buildings. (h/t Metafilter)

21 February 2009

The NY Times reports on the part of the stimulus package that will be contributing towards building a series of high-speed train linkages around the country. I love taking the Acela to DC even though it only goes a little faster than the cars on the Turnpike:

The Acela is the United States’ fastest train. But because the tracks it runs on are curvy, and are shared with many other trains, it is only able to reach its top speed of 150 m.p.h. on about 35 miles of track in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Its average speed is 84 m.p.h. between New York and Washington. Still, Amtrak has captured 62 percent of the combined air and rail market between New York and Washington, company officials said

While it is disappointing to see what passes for high-speed here, it is nice to see step forward. In Spain we were able to get to Madrid in about 4 hours, which saves at least 2 hours over driving. And, at 30 minutes, the high-speed link between Madrid and Toledo is a tourist's dream and has served the many businesses there quite well. Plus, these trains look cool.

Dr. Hurley is an an internationally recognized specialist in the area of turfgrass breeding and golf course management. He will be looking at a cutting-edge use of turfgrass in the urban reuse of a severely degrade site. Prior to the lecture you should look at the web site http://www.bayonnegolfclub.com and take thehelicopter tour of the facility.

19 February 2009

Geomatics students and alums who are found of National Parks might be particularly interested in the National Parks Service's Geoscientists-in-the-Parks program. This program helps connect GIS volunteers with special projects. It could be a fun summer project or a great chance to use your weekends to explore one of America's great landscapes.

"Based on the scientific findings and evidence about the causes and impacts of climate change, the American Society of Landscape Architects recognizes that global climate change presents a serious threat to humans and our environments."

"If steps are not taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that by the year 2100 the Earth’s surface temperature could increase by 4°C, resulting in devastating effects on the planet. However, there are various land-use policies and best practices that can reduce GHG emissions to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the planet and its inhabitants. Through sustainable site planning, innovative stormwater management practices, and the development of smart growth communities, landscape architects can serve society in a multifaceted strategy to contend with global climate change."

New relationships emerge in the intersections of digital and built worlds. At this intersection are technologies like digital tracking of individual movements. Modernizations' homogenizing effects (see: McDonald's and Starbucks) are further complicated by development issues.

Gentrification

Parks, sidewalks and advertising often go upscale before the housing does. Urban changes are leading to changing patterns of social relations. Urban people can be defined by their relationships outside the city (or lack thereof) as much as by those relationships within the city. Rapid gentrification came to Barcelona as part of the 1992 Olympics - but can the temporary modern change last?

There are political effects of globalization as well. We need to know what globalization is about. And we need to take a global perspective to solve the larger problems. For instance, as someone complains about losing their job here due to outsourcing, we need to think about the need for that job elsewhere (India, Mexico?). I don't think she means that we simply favor the outsourced job, but that we can't address the problem if we don't understand the larger context.

Q: Where is there an example of a just city?A: Reykjavik, Iceland or Curitiba, Brazil where the transit system progressively improves justiceBut both still favor some forms of segregation as a means of addressing social relationshipsBrasilia was a dream for a perfect city, but they didn't include the workers in that dream(As usual, I apologize for the sloppy misrepresentations, but hope the links help you track back to 1 or 2 interesting points)

16 February 2009

Dr. Julia NevárezSociology and Anthropology Department at Kean University

On global grounds: Urban change and globalization

Urban development in contemporary cities is lead by globalization’s priorities. Patterns in the way cities develop show similarities and differences among locales. This presentation will explore some of the main conceptual and applied components of urban change as they help better understand contemporary urban form. Some of the specific changes produced by globalization in contemporary cities and human settlements are: gentrification, competition among cities to attract capital, changing patterns in the networks of social relations, juxtaposed modernism and postmodernism in developing cities, the crisis of public space, spectacular events as machines of urban growth, and postcolonial landscapes inserted in the competitive logic of capital, among others. Converging at different levels of development, cities face a constant impact of global forces that make incisions in the materiality of local environments. Conceptualized by some as in flux, the relationship between the local and the global might not be accurately described with the dichotomy global/local. Likewise, there is a political effect to the changes globalization has incited. Researchers interested in the urban condition will find in this presentation and the book in which it is based -- “On Global Grounds: Urban change andGlobalization”edited by Julia Nevárez and Gabriel Moser -- insights into how urban areas develop, how they are planned, designed, and represented within globalization.

Dr. Julia Nevárez obtained her Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology, currently Assistant Professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Kean University, New Jersey and Past-Chair of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). Her interdisciplinary approach an research interests focus on urban issues, globalization, urban development, public space and techno culture.

after john Hasse's stimulating presentation last week, some students have asked how to convert their ArcGIS data into layers that can be easily viewed in Google Earth. Their are at least two ways these days. One is to download some simple programming tools like this SHP2KML program at SourceForge. The other is that ArcGIS 9.3 now has conversion tools that will do much of the hard work for you. Fortunately, since we covered it in Intermediate last week, you can just look at that lab for instructions (About 2/3 of the way through).

15 February 2009

The Rutgers Energy Institute will offer four awards ($2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place, $1,000 for third place, and a $1,000 for the Video category) to students or teams who develop the best plans to reduce student energy consumption and promote eco-friendly practices throughout the New Brunswick Campus.

13 February 2009

The Rutgers Energy Institute will offer an award of $750 to the team of students who design the best environmentally sustainable visitor's center at the Rutgers Gardens.

Teams of enrolled undergraduate students in the specified discipline area on the New Brunswick Campus are eligible. Students are encouraged to consult with faculty advisers in various departments to help form teams and develop designs.

Exploring the Potential for LEED-ND to Curb Sprawl in New JerseyThe Spring 2009 Environmental Geomatics LectureJohn Hasse, PhDRowan University

Part I: Patterns of Land Development in NJ

How do you know sprawl when you see it?One person's sprawl is another person's American Dream.Most densely populated stateStill increasing population, but the rate is slowing down a littleDoes that mean that development is slowing down?Using Google Earth, Dr. Hasse illustrated land use change patterns and showed that new development in a 16 year period was equal to the total land area of Bergen, Hudson, Passaic and Essex Counties combined.

He projects that in August 2008 we crossed the line where forest was the largest land use in NJ, to where Urban is now the largest!

He encouraged students to go to the NJ State Atlas website to get some other ways to look at the landscapes of New Jersey.

Part II: Can LEED-ND help with NJ Sprawl?

LEED-ND is the USGNC's new LEED measure for Neighborhood Development. While LEED has been around for buildings (like the Comcast building in Philly - the world's tallest green building) it is pretty new for developments. It includes firm requirements, like not building on wetlands, and some things you can do to get points, like affordable rental housing. It also requires at least 7 houses per acre and rewards transit, energy efficient buildings.

Dr. Hasse used Rowan Boulevard in Glassboro as a case study. This is a redevelopment of a deteriorating town center driven by the school, meant to help the town. Technically it would be ineligible because of an existing stream. But he proceeded to explore some other measures. The site avoided T&E species habitat, had more than 55% of front doors within a walking distance of a bus stop, connected to a bike path, and had dwelling units close to schools.

Monday's Leonard Lopate show included an interview with the author of a new novel about Frank Lloyd Wright. T. C. Boyle's The Women explores Wright's life by looking at him through the eyes of 4 women who loved him. Wright's personal life was almost always a mess, but it was in part due to how he tried to live as creatively as he designed. like his design work, it may have also reflected an inability to unerstand the perspectives of others around him.

10 February 2009

With the new semester well underway, people are starting to get a little more serious about using this blog as a resource. So, this seemed like a good time to rehash an old posting offering a few quick thoughts about how to take advantage of the Places and Spaces blog:

Archival materials- I use the blog as a place to drop materials that are meant to be useful resources for quite some time. Plus, after last year's soils lecture I probably posted something that might still be helpful this year. To help you find them, there is a search bar in the upper left corner and I also tag some long-term Resource of the Day type materials as Resources.

Places and Spaces Map - One of the more unusual features of the blog is that I try to map some of the places I write about. You will sometimes see a note at the end of a post that actually labels it as (Mapped) which is one way that I let you know it is mapped. But, if you hop straight into the map you'll often find links back to the blog posts, so that it is like a two-way street.

Lecture reports - For many of our guest lectures I am essentially live blogging the presentations. It isn't meant as lecture notes, but random thoughts that may or may not accurately reflect on what was said. I often seek out online graphics that I wanted to study more than I could during the lecture, or additional reference materials on the topic. Many of them (but not all) are tagged Common Lecture, which is the RU LA Department's weekly lecture. Recent examples include: Tom Woltz, Mason White, and Richard Alomar.

3 Landscapes - both a silly parlor game and a serious list to consider. We ask many of our guests this simple question: please name your 3 favorite examples of landscape architecture that you have ever visited. They get posted individually, mapped, and eventually added to a composite list.

Class lectures and test hints - Both for my classes (like JrStudio, IntGeo, EnvPlan, AdvGeo) and the classes with which I interact (like EnvGeo and EDA) I like to drop links, news, follow-up, notes, and test hints on the blog so that students can use this as a meaningful supplement to the class materials.

I know that we have visitors from all around the planet. But since the blog is kept more as resource for our current students that anyone else, I apologize if some of the features seem a little parochial. I entertain any suggestions for changes (easy changes) that make a difference.

09 February 2009

The Reel Africa 2008-2009 Film Festival at Rutgers is delighted to present:

DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE (Austria/Belgium/Tanzania et al; 2004) Directedby Hubert Sauper in English, Swahili and RussianThis documentary tracks the profound impact of the Nile perch fishing industry in Lake Victoria (mapped). The voracious fish have wiped out local species; while the prized fillets are flown out to Europeansupermarkets, Tanzanians experiences famine. What do the planes that transport the fish to Europe bring in to the African continent?

International Critics Award, Sydney Film Festival; Best Documentary, European Film Awards; Audience Award, Mexico City Contemporary Film Festival; Best First Work, César Awards, France; Audience Award, Entrevues Film Festival; Vienna Film Award, Viennale; Europa Cinemas Label Award, Venice Film Festival; European Jury Award, Angers European First Film Festival;Nominee, Academy Award, Best Documentary Feature

Presented by RICK SCHROEDER, Department of GeographyTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 at 7 P.M. in the Graduate Student Lounge, CAC

08 February 2009

With the down economy, we know an increasing number of out of work professionals. Peter Bregman at the Harvard Business Review has posted a nice blog entry with some nice tips about job searches. He says that you should spend less time reading ads and working on resumes and more time meeting people:

Spend all your hunting time with people: at lunch, on the phone, going for walks. Finding a job or new clients is all about human relationships.

Because:

It's highly unlikely, with all the people who are looking, that someone will hire someone they don't already know (or someone they know doesn't already know).

I am not yet fully convinced by the technology, but we have created a RU LA group on LinkedIn that may help you build a network more quickly. But, be careful. As the HBR note points out, it isn't about shallow networks, but building real relationships. And the harder you work at finding a job, the harder it can get to find one.

After our recent Philly field trip, I suspect that some of our readers have a new fondness for the City of Brotherly Love. On their next exploration of the city, they may want to tap into the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program's new application called Mural Farm. They developed a photographic database of over 650 murals around Philadlphia and geolocated them, then put them on a searchable interactive map interface. Philly.com gives a quick overview. It runs on Avencia's Sajara and was built with help from Penn's CML.

Professor Miller's research focuses on floriculture and ornamental crop physiology, especially carbohydrate metabolism, partitioning, and utilization of stored reserves in flower bulbs. He also conducts near-market research on flower bulbs and perennials, including uses for both forcing, dry sales, and landscape use. Examples of such work include cultivar trials, use of growth regulators, and post-harvest physiology and handling practices.

Until now, Google Earth let you explore the land but had no real content for the oceans, even though they cover 70% of the planet's surface. Now they have added more rocust ocean content by teaming up with the National Geographic Society, reports the Telegraph.

Section 506 of the bill gives a 30% tax credit for qualified green roof property expenditures on residential and commercial buildings. The language puts the cap at $5000 on residential buildings, and no cap for commercial buildings. The bill outlines specific, ASLA-recommendedlanguage, defining 'qualified green roofs' to mean any green roof at least 50 percent of which is a vegetated green roof system. The credit applies to any retrofit or new construction green roof.

In addition to the substantial input ASLA received from its expert green roof practitioner members, ASLA also received technical support from the non-profit organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. The legislation was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

Tom Rudel conducts research on land use change. He has researched the driving forces behind tropical deforestation both through case studies in the Ecuadorian Amazon and through quantitative analyses at the global scale. The latter set of studies has included work on 'the forest transition'. He has also done research on the forces that have driven suburban sprawl, primarily through field studies in the northeastern United States. Currently, he is working through the implications of these processes for global warming and writing a book about how environmentally friendly behaviors in localities can in some instances have global scale effects.

About the Author

An Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture in Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. He also serves as Associate Director of the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis and Undergradaute Program Director for Environmental Planning and Design. As a graduate of Kentucky (BSLA), LSU (MLA) and Wisconsin (PhD), he has a passion for the critical role of state universities as a source for world-class research and education based on inquiry arousal but is too busy keeping up this award-winning blog. Dr. Tulloch can be reached at dtulloch[at]crssa.rutgers.edu

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